


self-fulfilling prophecies

by proximally



Series: < human [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Experimental Style, Gen, POV Second Person, Worldbuilding, expanding somewhat on what i wrote 3 years ago in Silvertongue but can stand alone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-13 00:56:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11173641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/proximally/pseuds/proximally
Summary: It's like this.





	self-fulfilling prophecies

**Author's Note:**

> *does a year of psychology and reads a book* *writes weird fanfiction for a fandom she hasn't truly interacted with in years* nice

It’s like this:

Memory is a fickle thing, in humans perhaps more than in any other animal - though, how are we to know for sure? Certainty in the way a brain functions is foolish at best, but what we do know is that, always, memories are distorted from the truth. Mutated by bias and by confabulation, by apophenia and by someone else’s faulty retelling - some aspects are blown out of proportion, while others are discreetly tucked away, out of sight and out of mind.

Another strange facet of human psychology: the effect of expectation and preconceptions on subsequent experience. Regardless of quality, wine tastes better the more you paid for it, you won’t enjoy a film as much if you’ve heard criticisms of it, and painkillers act faster if they came in a prettier box.

Ghosts, at a fundamental level, are human. Most of them, anyway. Maybe. They are what little remains of a once-living, once-breathing person, their biological parts stripped away and the electrical impulses left behind. Sometimes, these slip through the cracks in reality to seep into what’s known as the Ghost Zone and, there, the degrading impulses bond with the matter of that plane - ectoplasm - and bend it to their will.

This is how a ghost is born. This is not information Jack or Madeleine Fenton are privy to, though their theories are not too far off. And since this is not something your parents know, then you don’t know it either - becoming a ghost does not, in fact, imbue you with anything besides ectoplasm. Of course, you don’t know _that_ either.

Ghosts, according to you, according to the way you have been taught by your parents - and they _are_ professional ghost hunters, experts in their field, so how could they be wrong? - ghosts are extra-dimensional creatures, once-human psyches twisted and corrupted by death. They do not feel emotion, and they do not feel pain. They do not think like we do. They are not human, not anymore, and therefore do not deserve our mercy or our compassion.

One more thing about human psychology: sometimes, if you believe something about yourself hard enough, long enough, you will become it - whether or not you were it beforehand.

So: what you believe is what you become, and you have become a ghost. These are the things you know about ghosts, these are the things you were taught, by the most important figures in your life. These things are the truth, and they have become _your_ truth.

You are a ghost. It took a while for you to realise this, fully, and what it meant, but you understand now. You do not feel emotion, and you do not feel pain. You do not think like they do. You are not human, not anymore, and you do not deserve their mercy or their compassion.

And, if sometimes the opposite seems true...well, you’re still a little bit human.

It’s not much in the way of consolation.

**Author's Note:**

> \- bias, eg. confirmation bias (there are many varieties), wherein you ignore information that challenges your preconceptions, and pay attention to information that aligns with your opinion. (eg. anti-vaxxers)
> 
> \- confabulation, where the truth is that you lie to yourself constantly, and create fictional narratives to explain why you do the things you do.
> 
> \- apophenia, where in actuality coincidences are totally normal, even the ones that seem miraculous; any meaning applied to them is down to humans' incredible pattern-matching ability. (eg. 2016's apparent slew of celebrity deaths)


End file.
